Danfoss unveils ejector for transcritical CO2 to North American food retailers

At the Food Marketing Institute’s Energy & Store Development Conference in New Orleans on Sunday, Danfoss introduced an ejector for transcritical CO2 booster systems to the North American food retail market.

“A lot of U.S. retailers say that transcritical systems are not efficient in the warmer climates in the U.S., but the ejector mitigates that issue,” said Hans Matthiesen, global segment director, food retail, at Danfoss’s table at the conference’s Manufacturer/Retailer Exchange. “It saves energy and reduces demand charges in a transcritical system on the hottest day of the year.”

Over the past 1.5 years the ejector, called the electrically controlled multi-ejector (CTM), has been installed in transcritical systems on a trial basis in more than 10 stores in Europe and South Africa,” said Matthiesen. In the U.S. it is being tested by OEMs. “We are working on getting UL approval.”

The ejector works with a parallel compressor in a transcritical system, but it can be used without a parallel compressor as well.

In concert with a parallel compressor, the ejector improves the efficiency of a transcritical booster system by more than 25% “on the hottest day of the year” and “outcompetes HFC systems everywhere in the world,” said Matthiesen. “The ‘CO2 equator” is gone with this.”